The Federal Government has said about 15 million vulnerable households have been captured in its Benefit Register for conditional cash assistance aimed at cushioning the impact of economic shocks.
The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction, Dr Bernard Doro, disclosed this during an interview on Arise Television on Friday.
Doro explained that although the National Social Register contains 17.9 million vulnerable households, not all of them qualify for direct financial support under the current conditional cash transfer programme being implemented in partnership with the World Bank.
“We are currently offering conditional cash assistance in conjunction with the World Bank, but this money is actually meant as a shock response. And so not everyone within the 17.9 million households in the register is in the Benefit Register. The Benefit Register is around 15 million vulnerable households,” he said.
According to the minister, the National Social Register currently holds data on about 17.9 million households identified through community-based assessments and socio-economic evaluations, but beneficiaries for specific interventions are selected separately depending on the objectives of each programme.
He noted that the conditional cash assistance scheme is designed as a temporary intervention to provide relief to households facing hardship, rather than a universal support system for all persons captured in the register.
Doro also revealed that the register currently accounts for about 70 million vulnerable Nigerians nationwide, representing individuals within the 17.9 million households already documented.
“Every poor person at the moment in the country that has been captured because the target started with the poorest of the poor. At the moment we have about 17.9 million vulnerable households that have been captured in the register, which translates to around 70 million individuals in that register. We are continuing to expand the register to capture as many people as possible,” he stated.
He said the process of identifying vulnerable persons relies heavily on community engagement, with local communities playing a key role in determining who qualifies as poor based on set criteria.
“Communities will guide us based on the questions that we have and the criteria that we have to be able to identify who is poor amongst them. And then we take steps also to validate these when we visit their homes, we look at the condition of the homes, we also look at their own personal data and we use this to be able to target who is the poorest of the poor,” he added.
The minister reiterated that inclusion in the National Social Register does not automatically make an individual eligible for financial assistance, stressing that beneficiaries are drawn from a separate Benefit Register depending on the nature of each intervention.
“Our desire is to ensure that every Nigerian is captured in the National Social Register. And just for context, there is a difference between the National Social Register and the Benefit Register. So when programmes are planned, you then target individuals based on the nature of the programme that you are delivering,” he said.
Doro added that the Federal Government would continue expanding the register while ensuring that interventions reach those most affected by poverty and economic hardship.
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